Collaboration - A Win/Win in your business
“Since all creation is a whole, separateness is an illusion.
Like it or not, we are all team players.”
John Heider - The Tao of Leadership
Collaboration—The Wave of the Future
Collaboration is presently the dominant mode of operation for organizational efficiency*, effectiveness**, and overall employee wellbeing. Collaboration refers to organizing employees and processes to maximize teamwork, cooperative learning, and cross-functional networking.
Balancing Individualism and Collaboration
The key to comprehensively implementing collaboration as the dominant workstyle is balancing it with individual performance.
A collaborative effort is more productive when
1. No one person has all the information or expertise to accomplish
the objective or goal within a given time frame.
2. There is a need, benefi t, or value to working across disciplines or
divisions.
3. Several or many points of view are necessary to solve diffi culties or
problems relating to the objective or goal.
4. A group naturally prefers a team-oriented approach and in which
productivity and employee well-being are not compromised.
5. There is a necessity (or opportunity) for greater productivity, quality,
and efficiency of operation.
* Efficiency refers to maximizing the use of resources in accomplishing a task, e.g., time,
money, people, etc.
** Effectiveness refers to using the best procedure or process in accomplishing a task to
produce, or exceed, the desired outcome.
The Realities of the 21st Century
1. Non-Western individuals are more dominantly collaboratively
oriented as a group. (Only 10% of the world’s population is
individually-oriented.)
2. Collaboration will dominate business and organizational operations
as we move through the 21st century as a necessity for speed,
efficiency, creativity, and the well-being of employees.
3. Cross-functional networking and extensive information sharing is a
necessity for serving customers/clients/coworkers in an exceptional
capacity.
4. Resource limitations, such as money, people with expertise, areas
of excellence, and cross-functional sharing of products and services,
will continue to force greater collaboration, partnerships, and acquisition.
Author: Dr. William Guillory, ph.D.
Meet Dr. Guillory in his upcoming new seminar in Frankfurt, October 18th: Transformation, Spirituality and Quality of Life.
For registration and further information: info@ivrknoll.com
We're looking forward to see you.
I totally agree with Dr. Guillory's views on collaboration. If this approach was more enthusiastically embraced in politics and corporate life, I believe it would lead to a more truly inclusionary process of decision making. From my own experience as a corporate leader and now as a consultant, when we forget to collaborate or collaborate with only those who agree with our thinking, we miss important opportunities to see the whole picture and to make the wisest most effective decisions that generate the best buy-in from those who will be most impacted by the implementation process.